BILLERICAY, ENGLAND--Disability rights advocates are being
credited, or blamed, for stopping a controversial sterilization operation from
happening.

Doctors are refusing to perform the hysterectomy and appendectomy on
15-year-old Katie Thorpe that her mother had requested.

Last October, Alison Thorpe announced that she had arranged for a doctor
to remove her daughter's uterus in order to keep Katie, who has cerebral palsy
and an intellectual disability, from experiencing "the discomfort and the
indignity" of decades of menstruation. Ms. Thorpe also wanted her daughter's
appendix removed because her daughter would not be able to tell her if she were
to ever have appendicitis.

That doctor said he was just waiting for approval from legal experts.

Disability rights groups in the United Kingdom and elsewhere expressed
outrage, and responded that forcing the procedure on Katie would cross a line
that could lead to more young people with disabilities being sterilized for
social rather than medical reasons.

Ms. Thorpe told the Daily Mail this week that the Mid Essex Hospital
Services National Health Service Trust has refused to allow the surgery because
there is no medical need for it. She said she believed doctors had given into
pressure from those groups that opposed her daughter's surgery.

"I think the trust has bowed down to what they perceived to be public
opinion, that is my personal belief," she said. "I feel the trust misread the
so-called lack of support from the minority, groups such as Scope.

Sharon Collins, executive director of the mental disability charity
Scope, told the Press Association: "We have always felt that an irreversible
procedure of this nature that is not clinically necessary is not the right way
forward. We have also always been surprised that any doctor in the UK would
contemplate such a measure."

Rachel Hurst, a spokesperson for the Disabled People's Council, told The
Telegraph: "There are so many approaches, this is a completely inappropriate
response to the situation. To violate Katie's rights is not the answer."

Katie's situation is somewhat similar to the case of "Ashley X", which
came to light in November 2006. In that case, the parents of the
then-six-year-old girl, who has intellectual disabilities, asked Seattle
doctors to perform a set of treatments -- including a hysterectomy, massive
doses of estrogen, and surgical removal of her breast buds -- to keep her
physically small and to avoid puberty. The parents said they chose what was
later dubbed the "Ashley Treatment" to keep their "Pillow Angel" from the
discomfort of menstruation and to make it easier for them to care for her at
home.

The Washington Protection and Advocacy System, now Disability Rights
Washington, later found that the operation was illegal and violated Ashley's
rights under Washington state law.